Learn Italian: Il medico dice che la ripresa sarà un processo progressivo. - The doctor says that the recovery will be a progressive process.

Since this sentence uses a noun and an adjective (un processo progressivo), the andare + gerund structure isn't used here. However, you could express the same gradual meaning by focusing on the verb. For example, you could say Il medico dice che il paziente si va riprendendo (The doctor says the patient is gradually recovering) or Il medico dice che la situazione va migliorando (The doctor says the situation is gradually improving). This emphasizes the step-by-step nature of the action.

Does the noun 'la ripresa' only refer to medical recovery?

No, la ripresa is highly versatile and means a 'recovery', 'resumption', or 'upturn' in many contexts. At the B2 level, you will often hear it used for the economy (la ripresa economica) or the resumption of a sports match or activity. For purely medical healing, you might also hear la guarigione, but la ripresa is excellent here for the process of getting one's strength back.

What would happen to the verb 'sarà' if the main verb 'dice' were in the past tense?

If you changed the first verb to the past (Il medico ha detto che...), Italian grammar rules for the sequence of tenses (consecutio temporum) require you to use the past conditional for the second verb to express a 'future in the past'. The sentence would become: Il medico ha detto che la ripresa sarebbe stata un processo progressivo (The doctor said that the recovery would be a progressive process).

Is 'processo progressivo' a common combination of words, or does it sound repetitive?